3 Ways Producers Can Gain a Concrete Competitive Advantage

While the concrete industry has a long and well-established history (in fact, it’s one of the oldest industries still thriving to this day), today it faces change at an unprecedented rate. 

Demand is up for more sustainable building materials. Raw materials cost more and have limited availability. Meanwhile, digital transformative initiatives promise productivity gains up to 15% and cost reductions up to 6%. 

The result of all this? Many producers are wondering how and where to modernize. Our latest eBook looks at the top three ways producers can embrace innovation to meet new market demands and boost profits.

1. Invest in New Technologies

Rising costs are pushing producers to seek out ways to create efficiencies and improve the bottom line by reducing manual tasks and processes. In our eBook, we outline four of the most effective technologies.

For example, the use of smart sensors when placing concrete. These make it easier for producers to monitor properties like temperature, humidity, maturity, and strength either on-site or remotely. With faster and more accurate access to insights, producers can enhance performance and create efficiencies in their mix designs.

2. Collaborate with Specification Writers

The process for developing specifications for concrete mix designs differs around the world. The process is often collaborative in Europe, with producers working alongside designers to encourage concrete mix innovation.

That hasn’t historically been the case in the US and other markets, where prescriptive specifications are more common. These restrict a mix’s compositional parameters, limiting how much innovation a producer can bring to a project. 

This is changing as the move towards more sustainable building gathers pace. Engineers and architects are increasingly interested in performance-based specs — outlining only how the concrete needs to perform so that producers can propose the best mix to meet the performance needs of the required application. 

Download our eBook to learn about how you can collaborate more closely with specification writers to gain a competitive advantage with sustainable concrete mix designs.

3. Gain Profits from Carbon Removal

There are many ways producers can monetize sustainability initiatives. For example, producers that are able to remove carbon emissions from the production process can effectively “sell” their carbon removal efforts to other companies that cannot.

Waste reduction is another option. CarbonCure recently won the Carbon XPRIZE for a groundbreaking innovation in this area with CarbonCure for Reclaimed Water. The solution gives concrete producers a new way to remove carbon from their operations, while also making the most of the recycled materials they have.

Carbon removal is a relatively new concept in the concrete industry but it is gaining momentum quickly. At the same time, carbon-reduction targets in construction are on the rise. Our eBook highlights how producers can focus on developing more sustainable mix designs right now, to avoid losing market share in the years to come.

Download your guide to meeting new market
demands and boosting profits

This just scratches the surface of everything we cover in our new eBook, ‘3 Ways to Gain a Competitive Advantage in Concrete Production.’ Download your copy to find out more — along with key considerations to help you decide where to invest, and real-life examples of producers that are using these approaches to gain a new competitive advantage.